October 09, 2023
Gaza war shows face of colonisation
Human rights activist John Minto says the flare up of the war in Gaza war has parallels with the Māori experience in Aotearoa.
On the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago, fighters from Hamas and other Palestinian groups broke through the fences around what’s been describes as the world’s largest prison and took control of nearby Israeli towns and military camps, taking Israeli soldiers and civilians back into Gaza as hostages.
Mr Minto, who chairs Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa, says in the 10 months leading up to last weekend, Israel killed 250 people, mostly teenage boys, during protests against the occupation and harsh restrictions placed on Gaza.
He says Palestinians see the same brutal face of colonisation as was experienced by Maori, Australian Aboriginals and Indigenous peoples around the globe in past centuries.
They’re being booted off their land. Their houses are being stolen. They have no rights whatsoever and Israel continues to do this, to steal more and more land because New Zealand and other Western countries let them get away with it,” Mr Minto says.
He says Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has tried to get get New Zealand to look at the conflict in a more balanced way but she has failed in the face of a concerted campaign by supporters of Israel that any criticism is anti-Semitic.